The Court of Appeal has dismissed Wayne O’Dwyer’s appeal against the severity of a seven-year sentence imposed for a 2016 robbery at a shop in Carrick-on-Suir. The sentence included a suspension of its final three years.
O’Dwyer had pleaded guilty to robbery under section 14 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001. Clonmel Circuit Criminal Court sentenced him on 15 December 2017. His appeal challenged both the sentencing judge’s approach and the weight placed on deterrence amid the judge’s remarks about crimes in Carrick-on-Suir.
The Court of Appeal judgment records that O’Dwyer entered the Eurogiant shop on Main Street on 31 March 2016 with his face partly concealed. He demanded that shop assistant Debbie Brockson open the till, threatened to shoot her and slit her throat, and grabbed the till. Staff tried to stop him leaving. He went to a nearby house, where gardaí arrested him. The till and its €250 contents were recovered.
Brockson told the sentencing court that she had been terrified and feared serious injury. She said she broke down at home after the incident, remained nervous when anyone wearing a hoodie entered the shop, and no longer liked going places alone.
The sentencing judge described the robbery as near the top end of the middle range and imposed seven years, suspending the last three. The court also records that the suspension required O’Dwyer to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, engage with the Probation Service for two years after release, comply with its requests, and abstain from alcohol and illicit drugs during the suspension. The judge referred to the early guilty plea, cooperation with gardaí and rehabilitation efforts as mitigation.
On appeal, O’Dwyer argued that the judge had not clearly explained the sentencing method or identified a headline sentence. The Court of Appeal rejected that ground, finding that the judge had identified seven years as the headline sentence and that it was justified by the seriousness of the offending and the harm to Brockson.
O’Dwyer also argued that the sentence was disproportionate and intended as an example because of the judge’s concern about violence and threatened violence in Carrick-on-Suir. The appeal court said the judge was entitled to prioritise deterrence in response to a perceived local problem, provided the sentence remained proportionate. It considered the sentence severe but within the judge’s legitimate discretion, and dismissed the appeal.